Obama is providing a rhetorically pointed outlet for Democrats and legitimate independents who are troubled by Romney’s hollowness and policy shifts, which have been so severe that they inflict whiplash. Keane seems to have assumed that readers haven’t noticed more than four years of anti-Obama mockery from Republicans that includes such juvenile fads as birtherism and accusations of closet socialism.

I disagree with Keane’s assertion that Democrats have portrayed Romney as a “nitwit.” Rather, they have portrayed him as dangerous and unprincipled. Democrats had nothing to do with Romney sharing his enlightened “47 percent” insight with big-money donors.

More recently, in an act of outright contempt for the intelligence of American voters, Romney told an outright lie at a campaign event in Ohio Oct. 25 about Jeep thinking of shipping all production to China. Who has been mocking whom?